Cheesie's fieldtrip

On Thursday Cheesie and I went on a fieldtrip with her class. She was very excited because it was the first time I was able to go with her.  After a couple hours on a bus (with a camera to entertain ourselves, as well as our knitting), Cheesie was ready for fun.

We boarded a boat with a touch tank, and LOTS of seats for all of the children, and took the 30 minute ride over to Capers Island, a barrier island off of SC. After the boat landed Cheesie learned about barrier islands, and some of the wildlife, and was able to search for shells. Children were taught about how important the shells were to the beach, and limited their search to their 3 favorite.

We hiked up the beach to the boneyard area (I REALLY love these places). Just like Hunting Island, and Bulls Island, the top of this island is being eroded by the long shore current and what used to be a maritime forest is now an interesting display of trees turning gray.

Here is Cheesie with the big whelk that she found. She kept this one and brought it home. She also found two scallop type shells that a boring sponge got to and left a hole in the top for a necklace.

A beautiful little marsh on the island.... we watched the fiddler crabs, and saw an egret.

On the way back we stopped and picked up a crab trap that had male and female blue crabs, as well as a whelk with it's animal still inside.

Above is the female blue crab. The bottom looks like the dome on the capitol building, a male would have a "washington monument" on the bottom. Below, we are looking at the whelk with the animal in it and learning how it uses its shell to eat clams and filter saltwater.

This was a thoroughly enjoyable trip (even with the VERY strong winds) and I highly recommend it. Cheesie and her classmates learned a lot and will always remember this one.